Playing With Fire / Comic Books

And he shall smight the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!

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• The Astro City villain Flamethrower is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. There's also an alien species called the Thermians who are Wreathed in Flames and wear backpacks that let them manipulate fire.
• Batgirl: The titular villain in The Attack of the Annihilator has some measure of control over fire and flames.
• Doom Patrol:
  • Fever had the power to increase the temperature around her and she was invulnerable to the heat, so invariably, she would light herself mostly on fire. She's a spacey Cloudcuckoolander, though. Well, until being imprisoned on Apokolips made her Darker and Edgier, that is.
  • One of Crazy Jane's multiple superpowered personalities is the gigantic "Sun Daddy" who shoots fireballs out of her flaming head. There was also Flaming Katy, who had more conventional fire powers.
• In Empowered, Willy Pete's body burns hotter than the sun, and he can fill a building with flames before anyone even knows he's there. Don't ask how he takes advantage of his powers.
• Johnny Storm (the second, but more famous Human Torch) from the Fantastic Four. The original hothead. He can generate shapes composed of fire from any point on his body (He usually employs his hands to "sculpt" the flames, occasionally as a lasso to ensnare enemies). He can form fire into long streams, spheres, or even more complex shapes like letters in skywriting. These flames-objects will only remain their shapes as long as he concentrates upon them. The objects will only burn about 3 minutes before expiring unless the Torch continues to infuse them with energy
  • Frankie Raye had powers similar to the Torch's, and her powers were augmented to cosmic levels when she became Nova, a Herald of Galactus.
  • Another one of Galactus' Heralds, the aptly named Firelord, has similar powers (his original name was also Pyreus Kril, tying into the theme)
  • The Golden Age Torch was an android who accidentally burst into flame on contact with air. He later gained control over his powers, became a superhero, and picked up a sidekick, Toro, who was also on fire, but a human boy mutated by radiation rather than an android.
  • Tara, a Distaff Counterpart to the Golden Age Human Torch, is also an android who bursts into flames. Unlike The Golden Age Torch, she never gained full control over her powers, so she was given a special suit so she could "flame off".
  • The Golden Age Human Torch was sometimes impersonated by Captain Kerosene, who had similar powers.
  • Super-Skrull has this power as well, since he has all of the F4's powers.
• Femforce has Firebeam, the ghost of a woman killed in a house fire, whose spirit can now control fire.
• DC heroine Beatriz DaCosta, also known as Fire. Unlike most other fire wielders, her flames burn green, and, even de-powered, her hair is permanently bright green.
• Fire Lad, of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, could breathe fire. He was rejected by the Legion of Super-Heroes because he couldn't control his powers very well; a recent version of him had his powers officially listed as "breathes fire with at best moderate control." Sun Boy had more direct, Human Torch-style fire abilities (and a way with the ladies not unlike Johnny's). Wildfire, a little, as well.
• Gen¹³: Burnout powers allow him to manifest fire and heat blasts as well as fly.
• The Ghost Riders can do this with Hellfire, the biggest example being the original Johnny Blaze.
• Effigy, a Green Lantern villain, has Imagination Based Superpowers themed around fire. He was originally intended as a Sinestro-style Evil Counterpart to the then-new (and very pyrophobic) Lantern, Kyle Rayner.
• This is the gimmick of several DC villains, most notably Heat Wave, who is an extreme pyromaniac who burned down his home as a boy and designed a pocket flamethrower and fireproof suit so he could handle fire better.
• Liz Sherman from Hellboy. As it turns out in the comicbooks, she actually has some kind of free-willed elemental fire-spirit living inside her, hence her occasional Power Incontinence.
• Judge Dredd:
  • The villain Judge Fire is a mass-murdering skeleton wreathed in flames with fire-based powers, which he shoots out of a trident. This makes his physical shell ridiculously hard to destroy even compared to the other Dark Judges, with water logically proving most effective to counter him. Has a hotheaded personality and is a psychopathic pyromaniac.
  • There are some psychics in Mega-City One who are able to project fire, but they're kept under permanent observation by Psi-Division because they tend to suffer from Power Incontinence.
• Fireman, from Liberty Scouts, can control fire and even turn into glass.
• The Human Flame, a small-time crook brought down by the Martian Manhunter decades ago. When he got out of the joint, friends in high places let him get revenge by roasting MM alive. The Human Flame's suit shoots fire from nozzles located on its chest, leading to jokes about him having "fire nipples".
  • And minor villain Vulcan, as part of his group's Classical Mythology theme.
• A number of minor Marvel Comics supervillains possess this power. Firebrand was a radical political anarchist who created his own suit of flame-blasting armor to battle Iron Man, the second one stole the battlesuit of the first and went on to battle Spider-Man and a few B-list heroes, and the third was mutated by a horrible lab accident and essentially became a Psycho Electro, except with fire. Another notable example is the supervillain Solarr, who possesses the ability to absorb solar radiation and convert it to blasts of fire that he can control. Using this ability to become a supervillain, he would later go on to battle Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Alpha Flight.
• Marvel and DC each have a fire-wielder named Volcana.
• Dante "Inferno" Pertuz is yet another fire-slinger in the Marvel Universe, introduced in the 2014 Inhumans series. Nobody besides his creator Charles Soule gives him much respect and his powers (and characterization) have grown increasingly generic in other authors' hands. In 2017's Secret Warriors, Kamala Khan calls him "the Inhuman Torch," and he admits that he gets teased this way constantly. It doesn't help that he was recently cooped up in New Attilan while both Johnny Storm and Thomas "Toro" Raymond (the Golden Age Torch's sidekick who's a recently-retconned Inhuman) were in residence.
• The Mighty Thor: Thor has created fire blasts and expanding fire waves with Mjolnir. The hammer can also be used to absorb fire-based attacks, while Thor himself has withstood Ghost Rider's hellfire, Heimdall's cosmic fire, and the Super Skrull's nova blast for extended periods. There's also Surtur, Lord of the Fire Demons of Muspelheim, can produce massive amounts of fire akin to stars.
• X-Men:
  • Magma from New Mutants controls fire in addition to lava, so she's kind of a Fire/Earth elemental.
  • And various versions of Sunfire, as well.
  • Matchstick, a mutant at the Xavier school. Part of his mutation is that his head is permanently on fire.
  • School rioter Glob Herman's body was made of a gelatinous substance that could also be set on fire (until he was extinguished). The "setting on fire" part was taken care of by fellow rebel student Redneck, who had actual fire powers.
  • Fever Pitch, another mutant fire guy. His powers eventually destroyed his body, but his flaming skeleton continues to walk among us, fully alive.
• Johnny Do, a character from The New Universe title Psi-Force, combines this power with severe Hollywood Autism. The results are not pretty.
• Pep Comics: Fireball can control fire and uses his abilities to fight arsonists.
• Surprisingly averted by Nedor's Pyroman — he actually has electrical powers.
• Robin villain Fuego is a Latina woman wreathed in flames which she can control and direct at others.
• In Soulsearchers and Company, Baraka is a fire demon from the Arabic Hell, whose powers allow him to create, control and manipulate fire.
• Deceased minor Spider-Man villain Demogoblin had the ability to project flames as one of his innate demonic powers. Whilst it's described as being hellfire, it didn't show any particularly magical attributes, outside of Demogoblin’s ability to shape it into functional replicas of the Hobgoblin arsenal.
• Star Trek: Early Voyages: The Lirin are able to mentally generate fires. Lt. Nano is a grade two pyrotechnic.
• Burn from Strikeforce: Morituri had standard pyrotechnic powers.
• Superman:
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Sheko gains pyrokinesis as well as telepathy once she becomes a Red Lantern. She probes minds to judge people. If she finds them innocent, she let them go; If she finds them guilty, she burns them down.
  • In Supergirl (Rebirth), Kryptonian werewolf Lar-On has -and uses- fire Eye Beams.
  • In Demon Spawn, villain Nightflame can channel tongues of flames through of her blade. She is more than capable of bringing down a building with her pyrokinesis.
  • In Supergirl (1982), Supergirl happens upon a pyrokinetic mutant who can control and shoot fire.
  • In Bizarrogirl, the titular Bizarro character breathes fire.
  • Chris Kent's girlfriend and Supergirl's childhood friend, Thara "Flamebird" Ak-Var, has pyrokinesis in addition to standard Kryptonian powers. In The Hunt for Reactron, Thara shows she can harness fire even if being stunned by kryptonite, red sunlight, or some other Kryptonian weakness.
  • The Phantom Zone: Kryptonian criminal Az-Rel is a pirokinetic who can create fire in anywhere.
    Az-Rel is a pirotic. He can start fires with his thoughts. Anywhere. Even in the snow.
  • In The Leper from Krypton, the Flammbronians can create and mold fire by virtue of being an alien race of flaming humanoids.
  • In Supergirl (1984), the witch Selena is able to summon flames which she uses to punish her enemies...and light up a cigarette.
• Super-Mystery Comics: Vulcan can control fire and is effectively bulletproof since the bullets melt before hitting him.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Rodimus Prime is able to light himself on fire, though it burns up most of his energy to do so.
• Ultimate Fantastic Four: Johnny Storm is the Human Torch. Bursting into flames and throwing fire around is part of the package.
• Ultimate Spider-Man: The Green Goblin drops his usual arsenal for immense fire abilities including melting bullets and being a Walking Wasteland. He doubles as a Mythology Gag to the Demogoblin.
• A major plot point in The Wicked + The Divine's first arc is which gods have fire within their domains, since whoever does also had the ability to kill the judge and frame Lucifer for murder. Lucie herself, obviously, is one, and she often flicks her thumb on fire to light her cigarette. Baphomet also lights a subway on fire in his first appearance. Beyond that, Cassandra figures that any god with domain over the sky, since that includes the sun and therefore fire. Ananke later clarifies that all the gods (except Woden, who makes machines that achieve the same affect) can perform miracles, which means any of them could have killed the judge. As it turns out, it was Ananke, to punish Lucifer for boundary-pushing, and to give her an excuse to execute her.
• The title team in Wildguard features two heroes with this power: Ignacia and Freezerburn. This clashes with Superhero Speciation standards, especially since Freezerburn also having An Ice Person powers causes many people to write Ignacia off as redundant.
• Taranee Cook from W.I.T.C.H., who averts the firey personality aspect by being shy, bookish, and the brainy one. She still has a temper: as Cedric put it when Elyon asked him to stop a furious Taranee, "I can't! The Power of Fire is the most untamed of all! Run away! RUN AWAY!". It gets better: Cedric cried that when Taranee got furious and started melting the supposedly fireproof bubble she was imprisoned into, and he rebuked Elyon because he told her not to provoke Taranee.
• Wonder Woman
  • Sensation Comics: Queen Flamina, a one-shot villain who is almost identical to Queen Atomia, has the ability to manipulate and control fire.
  • Villain Zara used pyrotechnics Pre-Crisis and was reimagined as a genuine pyrokinetic Post-Crisis.
• Flame, from Wonderworld Comics, can control fire and even burst into flames.
• X-Men:
  • Pyro's mutant power allows him to control fire, but, notably, not create it; in the comics and the third movie, he uses a specially designed harness to produce flame, but in the first and second movies, he used an ordinary lighter. The Ultimate Universe Pyro is not immune to fire and is horribly scarred all over his body.
  • Shiro Yoshida/Yashida, the Japanese Captain Ethnic guest-star Sunfire, complete with a rising-sun emblem and scary pseudo-samurai mask that looks like it's made of fire half the time.
  • Jean Grey and her daughter Rachel Summers with the power of The Phoenix Force. Her Phoenix powers give her cosmic pyrokinesis, essentially magic fire.

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